Tag: mobile apps

Study highlights the role that mobile technology is playing with small and medium enterprises

The Boston Consulting Group and Qualcomm have released a new study that suggests that mobile technology has become a growth factor for small and medium businesses. Consumers have begun to rely heavily on their mobile devices, using smartphones and tablets in their daily lives and for much more than communication. The advent of mobile commerce has allowed businesses to connect with consumers in a more dynamic way, and the growing adoption of mobile technology could help these businesses find greater success in the future.

Businesses embracing mobile technology are creating more jobs and finding revenue growth

According to the study, the top 25% of small and medium enterprises reported seeing two times the revenue growth and as much as eight times the number of jobs created through their adoption of mobile technology. These enterprises tend to be leaders in their industries in terms of mobile technology adoption, giving them an edge over their larger counterparts. The study notes that consumers are willing to give up other things just so they can continue to use their mobile devices.

New technology has helped generate 11 million jobs throughout the world

With mobile technology becoming a powerful force among businesses, companies are beginning to take steps to use new technology in order to engage consumers and perform better in their chosen industries. Notably, mobile technology is a growth engine for global employment. According to the study, the mobile sector has created some 11 million jobs throughout the world. Investments in mobile technology have also begun to increase, with the study showing that these investments have doubled.

Mobile apps and content generate billions in revenue in 2014

Mobile applications are particularly lucrative. The study shows that mobile content and applications, combined, generated some $530 billion in revenue in 2014. The retail sale of mobile devices generated $520 billion during last year. Altogether, mobile technologies, and the content associated with them, are estimated to have generated more than $3 trillion in revenue in 2014.

The majority of advertisers are quick to dive into apps, but there is a great deal more to the channel.

While study data has been consistently showing that consumers are now spending more time looking at the screens of their smartphones and tablets than their TVs, mobile marketing is still not viewed as a powerful channel for advertising.

Instead, many marketers are seeing this sphere as being limited to mobile apps, and not much else.

All too many mobile marketing companies have been overlooking the mobile web as a good way to be able to reach consumers. That said, the vast majority of m-commerce and traffic over smartphones and tablets does not come through apps. This suggests that marketers are missing a considerable opportunity by placing all of their focus on that one component of the channel, and overlooking the rest, nearly completely.

Recent Forrester research findings suggest that mobile marketing may not be fully understood by those using it.

The Forrester findings showed that the average smartphone user on in the United States and the United Kingdom have 24 mobile apps on their devices, but will spend 80 percent of the time that they use those devices on only 5 of them. The most amount of time is typically spent on messaging and on social media, as opposed to mobile gaming. While there are certain specific vendor apps, such as Starbucks, that have done exceptionally well, the majority are considered to be relatively insignificant.

With the growing importance of mobile devices to the average consumer, it is surprising that retailers and brands have not kept up with the new wave of advertising opportunities, particularly considering that the competition is “low” now, and will only increase over time. Moreover, this is typically considered to be quite an affordable and cost effective way to reach consumers, but is not being used for driving engagement.

While it isn’t that apps are unimportant, data is showing that mobile marketing needs to involve the web and other methods of reaching consumers in a way that increases their odds of being reached.